Survey shows flat electrics 20 years old- is this a problem?

**Juice**

Have you established that the wiring is safe by having an electrician round to have a look? Really wish we'd done this as when we moved in started having a fair few problems, ok for now but will need rewired in the not too distant future.

Cambridge32

If you are concerned then get an electrician to perform an inspection. Your main consideration should be safety, as many older wiring setups may lack modern safety features. We are looking at buying a house that was completely re-wired 25 years ago, and the full building survey has identified that essentially it is unsafe and in need of replacement. Get an expert opinion and proceed from there.

LandyAndy

My first house was built in the 1930's. When I bought it in 1980 the wiring was completely shot.

My current house was built in 1969. The wiring is original and gives no problems although I may get it renewed in the next 5 years.

At 20 years old the OP's wiring should be fine for a good while. Unless there are any signs that it isn't working properly I would leave it alone.

Sugared-frog

We've been in the current house for 20 years and I think our electrics are fine. Though they wouldn't meet the current standards. But that's the same with various things you do on a house - the guidelines change over time, doesn't make the existing set up dangerous. The number of times we have had our gas annual check which has then pulled up a problem because the regulations have changed in the previous year even only a couple of years after we had the work done by British Gas.

kiki*_2

I have just bought a 25yr old house. The electrics would have been fine but the last owners added spot lights everywhere and I'm sure it's now being overloaded. Has the flat had things added? If not your prob fine!

ruggedtoast

Electrical regs have changed a lot in the last few decades so a two decade old house probably wont be up to code now. Whether that is a deal breaker or not is up to you.

I would at least ensure you have a modern consumer unit fitted and try and get the sellers to bear all or some of the cost. The wiring in our place was unsafe (unearthed sockets, unbonded mains supply, ancient CU, unearthed lights) but the owner wouldnt budge on it so we had to swallow the cost when we moved in. As far as he was concerned he'd lived there for years and never had a problem.

Daryl_S_2

Get them checked out, not too expensive.
Surveyors only have limited experience and knowledge of service installations and will always recommend further investigation if there is the slightest doubt, afterall electrical defects are one of the major causes of fires.
You never know what some DIY'er has hacked about over the years.
We found some of our ceiling lights had been disconnected from the switching and connected to wall sockets in hidden locations, earthing had been removed, exposed cables and connectors in accessible locations, all sorts.

We just had it all checked out and a modern RCD consumer unit put on, re earthed, now tested and complies with current regs for £280 plus VAT.

DVardysShadow

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Electrical regs have changed a lot in the last few decades so a two decade old house probably wont be up to code now. Whether that is a deal breaker or not is up to you.

I would at least ensure you have a modern consumer unit fitted and try and get the sellers to bear all or some of the cost. The wiring in our place was unsafe (unearthed sockets, unbonded mains supply, ancient CU, unearthed lights) but the owner wouldnt budge on it so we had to swallow the cost when we moved in. As far as he was concerned he'd lived there for years and never had a problem.

Consumer units - unless broken - do not need changing in most instances. Only those units with ceramic holders with bare wire threaded through need changing. If the unit has circuit breakers or cartridge fuses [ceramic tubes with metal end caps] it is perfectly fine.

And the most common consumer units, from Wylex can be upgraded to cartridge fuses or circuit breakers for about £5 - £8 for cartridge fuses or £10 - £15 for circuit breakers per way in less than 15 minutes for the whole consumer unit.

property.advert

From a pragmatic standpoint, if I viewed a house where the current owners didn't have a modern consumer unit and no updated wiring, I'd be thinking about replacement cost within the viewable horizon and it would also indicate to me that they didn't spend money keeping their property updated, which may show up in other areas, such as insulation, heating / hot water system, etc.

If you modernised a house, one of the first things you'd do would be to install a consumer unit, simply for convenience.

googler

property.advert wrote: »

From a pragmatic standpoint, if I viewed a house where the current owners didn't have a modern consumer unit and no updated wiring, I'd be thinking about replacement cost within the viewable horizon and it would also indicate to me that they didn't spend money keeping their property updated, which may show up in other areas, such as insulation, heating / hot water system, etc.

This is ludicrous, in my view.

I refer back to my earlier post re house built in 1971, sold in 2009 with original wiring and consumer unit. Upgrades included double glazing, replacement front and back doors, maintenance-free soffits and gutters, CH boiler less than 10 years old and on annual maintenance contract, etc etc.

My point being - you can't infer that 'original wiring' automatically implies 'lack of care or maintenance in other areas'